The advent of the Internet has provided merchants with new channels for reaching customers and providing information regarding their products (i.e., goods and/or services). The Internet also provides customers with the ability to purchase those products without leaving their computer. However, customers who shop online typically must provide the merchant sensitive information such as account identification information, for example a credit card number, expiration data and zip code of residence of the account owner. Providing sensitive information to an online merchant, which may or may not be a trustworthy entity or individual, creates a significant security risk.
In online transactions, either a customer provides necessary transaction information, such as shipping and/or billing information each time she engages in a transaction with a merchant, or the customer sets-up a customer account with the merchant to store requisite transaction information and imports the data from the customer account at the time of the transaction. Having the customer provide the necessary transaction information each time she engages in a transaction with the merchant is a burdensome and time-consuming task that impedes check-out and makes online shopping less desirable. Moreover, setting up accounts with each online merchant is also a time-consuming endeavor and poses a security risk in the event that the customer accounts are compromised. Therefore, a need exists to for effective systems and techniques for providing fast and secure checkout processes on the Internet (i.e., on the “web”).